Eddie Haskell
Eddie Haskell was the obsequious best friend of the title character’s older brother in the 1950’s family sitcom Leave it to Beaver. His trademark was sucking up to the Beav’s parent or, really, any adult. The author uses this character as a symbol of the “argument by character” by implicating Haskell’s phony persona presented to adults as an example of how “character” can be a persuasive tool for rhetorical argument even when it is not authentic.
Mr. Spock
Captain Kirk’s dependable second-in-command becomes a symbol for confusing a lack of emotional engagement with logic. The author uses Spock as the foundation for his instructing that while pure logic prohibits emotion, rhetoric requires that logic engages emotions.
Chewbacca
Chewbacca becomes the book’s symbol of the rhetorical fallacy of the “red herring” by way of the adult satirical cartoon South Park. Taking a scene from the show which parodies Johnnie Cochran’s famous defense of OJ Simpson—“if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit”—a completely irrelevant fact about a character from Star Wars becomes a symbol for argumentative distraction.
Homer Simpson
Speaking of fallacies, Homer Simpson becomes the text’s chief symbolic incarnation of the ways in which logical arguments are perverted through persuasive techniques common to ancient rules of rhetoric. More specifically, the author uses quotes from Homer (as well as some other characters from The Simpsons on occasion) as examples of arguments which can seem persuasive on the surface and uses to them as demonstrations of common rhetorical fallacies.
Shoes
Shoes are the author’s symbol for the rhetorical tool known as “dialysis” which is just a fancy term for making a point about one thing by using another. In this case, a salesman’s advice to the author for buying suits is emulate those wearing the best shoes—not to buy the shoes or even suits, but to replicate the colors of the clothing they wear.
